For people interested and concerned with the current direction of the U.S. government, Sally
Yates, offers
insight, "Protect
the Justice Department from Trump". She writes that what's happening, "… is
beyond abnormal. It’s dangerous."

2/2/17: I am delighted that UMass Amherst Chancellor, Kumble Subbaswamy, has issued
a terrific message and committed
resources in support of all of our faculty, students and staff who may be
in danger because of Trump's Executive Order. In particular, "The university has joined in a
lawsuit with the ACLU and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts challenging the constitutionality of
the president’s executive order, which the Massachusetts Attorney General described as
`un-American, discriminatory, and reckless decision-making.'"

1/30/17: Harvard's president, Drew Faust, recently posted an excellent message of
inclusiveness, "We Are
All Harvard", which I strongly agree with, as do the friends and colleagues I have spoken
with here at UMass and around the world.

For an inspiring view of what matters in the world and why it is important to follow your
dreams with energy and integrity, take a fifteen-minute break to enjoy Michelle Obama speaking at
the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Outrageous, senseless and evil actions such as the massacre in Orlando are unacceptably common.
Obviously gun control and especially the ban of automatic weapons would help a lot. So
would regulation of guns and gun owners analogous to the current regulation of motor vehicles and
drivers. We need members of Congress with courage and common sense. See for example this
New York Times
editorial, The
massacre was made possible by easy access to guns for terror suspects.

It is now clear that Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United
States. She is smart, knowledgeable, hard-working and progressive. Furthermore, there is no
choice. This article gives great
insight into how transformative it will be to have our first female
president: What
My Mother Sees in Hillary.

Public opinion, while originally supporting the FBI when it seemed this was about a single
terrorist's phone, has now come around to Apple's side, namely strong cryptography is necessary to keep us
safe and secure.

Now it is gratifying to see that
the FBI has withdrawn its demand,
learning that as Landau and others have told them, it was possible to get the data they needed
without forcing Apple to weaken its iPhone security. At least for now, case closed: a victory for
U.S. personal security and national security.

Friends and
colleagues have asked
what's going on in America re the Republican debates and primaries.
I
think that the answer is that the
Republican Party has been hoist with its own
petard. I think that Obama
is a fantastic president and if the
Republican members of Congress had behaved
in an even remotely professional or
patriotic manner during his two terms in
office, the USA would be doing
amazingly well. They have not and this
is the result. Among others, the Koch
brothers -- see Dark Money by Jane
Mayer -- have brought much of this on. Others say this is just the culmination of
Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy".
Here is the take of three reliable op-ed
writers for the New York Times, plus two politicians whom I trust and respect:

If you are an American citizen, the most important thing you can do is to stay involved and vote in
November and make sure that your friends and family do as well.

"The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now," Mr. Obama said during
a news conference after a meeting in California with leaders of Southeast Asia. He said the
Constitution demanded that a president nominate someone for the court and the Senate either
confirms or rejects. "There’s no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,"
Mr. Obama said. "That’s not in the Constitutional text." From The New York Times, Feb 17, 2016.

If you haven't heard or seen President Obama's Eulogy for Clementa Pinckney,
I urge you to take the time to watch and listen to it now:

"Yet racial hatred is still a potent force in our society, as we’ve just been reminded to our horror. And I’m sorry to say this, but the racial divide is still a defining feature of our political economy, the reason America is unique among advanced nations in its harsh treatment of the less fortunate and its willingness to tolerate unnecessary suffering among its citizens."

On a related note I recently visited the
Home of FDR.
Here is a relevant quote from FDR,

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

I also visited Val-Kill which was Eleanor Roosevelt's
modest home after the death of FDR.
I hadn't known that, because of her work for civil rights, a bounty of twenty-five thousand dollars
was put on her head by the Klu Klux Klan. Eleanor Roosevelt was undaunted. Here is what she said,

"Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, it is easier."

Dark
Money: as this New York Times Editorial explains in some detail, the extremely harmful
Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, continues to wreak havoc with our experiment
in democracy.

Listen to
Susan Landau, Professor of Cyber-Security Policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
and author of "Surveillance or Security?: The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies,"
explain to John Hockenberry why it is a good thing that iPhones and Android phones encrypt their data.

I take my hat off to Steve Strogatz for his excellent series of mathematical columns in the New
York Times including this one on differential calculus:
Change We Can Believe In.

Lance Fortnow makes an excellent argument,
in Time
for Computer Science to Grow Up that the increasing number of very
specialized conferences and the increased "value to one's resumé" of
publishing in such conferences is harming the field.